Louisville basketball: Cards flee Demons in comeback win over Wake
By Jacob Lane
Chris Mack’s trust in his seniors is evident and it’s going to pay off
Louisville’s starters were flat out bad during the first half against Wake Forest. While Jordan Nwora was the offensive spark desperately needed to keep the Cards in the game, scoring 12 first-half points, the remaining four starters combined to score six points on 2/8 shooting.
Louisville got the majority of its scoring from the bench including six points from Ryan McMahon who continued his hot shooting and eight points from Malik Williams including two big three’s in the first half.
I personally thought to head into the second half the starting five should have been changed. The effort from Louisville’s starting five was minimal at best during the first half and it showed in the scoreboard.
Personally, I would not come back out after half time with the same group of starters. Outside of Jordan Nwora and some good non-scoring help from Dwayne Sutton, Louisville got NOTHING. 6 points on 2/8 shooting, 4 turnovers, and 5 fouls.
— Big Red Louie (@TheBigRedLouie) February 6, 2020
Mack trusted his starting five to return to the floor in the second half and to give 20-minutes of top-notch effort on both sides of the floor. In the first half, Louisville’s effort was bad (obviously we’ve hit on that) but so was their offensive execution, ball movement, and communication.
That’s where Mack leaned into his upperclassmen to get it figured out. I would imagine he had choice words for his guys in the locker room as they stumbled through their worst half of basketball (we’ll touch on that shortly), and my guess is he knew they’d respond.
Thankfully, they did.
Fresh Kimble, Jordan Nwora, Steven Enoch, Ryan McMahon, Dwayne Sutton, Malik Williams, and Darius Perry pushed Louisville during their 20-5 run to open the first half, doing it on both ends of the floor, to the highest level of their abilities.
Everyone gave 115 percent defensively suffocating the offense of Wake Forest and completely eliminating the open looks that were there in the first half and they used it to get the momentum of their offense going.
As Dan Dakich continually pointed out during the first half, Louisville was lost, it was easy to see. The ball wasn’t moving side to side, the action away from the ball was minimal, and no one outside of Malik Williams was calling for the ball inside.
In the second half that changed. Louisville began force-feeding Steven Enoch, which opened up shots for everyone else. Fresh Kimble started looking for his shot, while Dwayne Sutton attacked the basket time and time again.
After getting just a little in the first half from his upperclassmen, Mack got probably their best collective performance in the second half as they scored all 52 of Louisville’s points and ultimately pushed them to a win.
Experienced and proven players are what wins championships and last night we saw just how special Louisville’s group can be playing at their best.